Geometry optimization and prediction of voltage requirements for particle trapping in EK-driven insulator-based microfluidics

Abstract

Electrokinetically-driven microfluidics devices have shown to be of great interest for researchers especially when applied in biomedical engineering, medical diagnosis, and biological research. A growing field for this technology is the development of Point-of-Care devices, due to their capability to offer portable, fully integrated, easy to use, and low-cost diagnostic platforms. This work presents an analysis of current electrokinetically-driven (i.e., dielectrophoresis, electrophoresis, electroosmosis) devices from the point of view of voltage requirements, especially for insulator-based devices which are characterized by high (hundreds to thousands of volts) input voltages. Moreover, this work addresses the high voltage problem by presenting a geometry optimization methodology, based on recent advances in the area, to reduce and predict the voltage requirements in insulator-based devices.